Dragon Elephant Tower, also known as Qingshan Tower, is not only a well-known tourist attraction in Guangxi, but also a landmark and symbol of old Nanning in the minds of many people.
As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Qingxiu Mountain, which was named Taiqingling at that time, was a famous summer resort in Lingnan. In the Ming Dynasty, Qingxiu Mountain was known as the green mountain, and the cliff stone carvings, Dongxu Pavilion, Dong Quan, and other scenic spots on the mountain, such as the "place where Mr. Yangming passed", gradually became the elegant place loved by literati and ink writers.
At that time, the people of Nanning wanted to visit Qingxiu Mountain, they had to take a boat at the location of today's Minsheng Wharf, and then abandon the boat at the foot of Qingxiu Mountain to go ashore, which is why many historical and cultural monuments in Qingxiu Mountain are concentrated in Yangmingdong, Shuiyue Nunnery, and Dongquan.
In the autumn of the forty-sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1618), Xiao Yunju hired workers to build a pagoda in Fengyiling, Qingxiu Mountain, which became the most eye-catching building in Qingxiu Mountain.
Who is Xiao Yunju and why did he build a tower in Qingxiu Mountain?
According to historical records, Xiao Yunju was a Jinshi in the 14th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1586) (subtitle: Xiao Yunju (1554-1627), the word Yunsheng. In the fourteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, he served as the secretary of the Hanlin Academy, the servant of the ministry, the prince Taibao, and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites. ）。 In some folklore, it is said that Xiao Yunju's father was a porridge seller, and accidentally discovered the treasure land of Qingxiu Mountain from a guest who ate porridge. According to the Xiao family tree, his ancestors were military households who followed the Ming army from Jiangxi to Guangxi and became officials with military merits. In fact, Xiao Yunju is a family of eunuchs and the son of a high-ranking county commander. In the records of "Records of Mingshenzong" and "Records of Mingxizong", Xiao Yunju was an honest official and won the trust of Emperor Wanli. After he was admitted to the Jinshi, he soared all the way, and was one of the founders of the public security school. As an important minister of the imperial court, why Xiao Yunju wanted to return to his hometown to build a pagoda in Qingxiu Mountain has different reasons.
Some legends say that the Fengyi Ridge of Qingxiu Mountain is shaped like the wings of a phoenix, this piece of terrain is just like a phoenix playing peony, and the pagoda is built here in the hope of keeping the phoenix and not flying away. There are also legends that the bottom of the pagoda is the southeast water mouth of the Yongjiang River, and the "river demon of the pagoda town" can avoid the outflow of wealth and keep one side safe. It is also said that the pagoda is erected in the southeast of the center of Nanning in order to pray for the prosperity of Wenchang. It is also said that there was a rebellion of King Pingyuan in the area of Wuxu, and the repair of the pagoda played a deterrent role in it. These records are mainly derived from the records of the Nanning Prefecture Chronicles and other local chronicles.
Although folklore is imaginative, it can be found when you open the pages of history. There is an amazing coincidence between the construction of the Dragon Elephant Pagoda and the pagodas of other cities in Guangxi. In addition to the Dragon Elephant Tower, Guangxi Hepu Wenchang Tower, Hengzhou Chenglu Tower, Laibin Wenhui Tower, Guiping East Tower and other pagodas were built during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. Not only Guangxi, but also all over the country, Wanli Pagoda also abounds.
What really happened during the Wanli years? In the fourth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1576), the 14-year-old Wanli Emperor congratulated his biological mother, the Empress Dowager Cisheng, on the birthday of his mother, the Empress Dowager Cisheng, and built a Yongan Wanshou Pagoda in Cishou Temple, also known as Linglong Pagoda. The History of the Ming Dynasty records that the Empress Dowager spent a lot of money to build temples and pagodas, and the emperor gave countless helps. (Subtitle: "Gu Hao Buddha, there are many Buddhist temples inside and outside the Beijing Division, and the cost is huge, and the emperor also helps to give nothing.") Living in the day, I tried to say it, but I couldn't use it. —"History of the Ming Dynasty") even the powerful Ming Dynasty first assistant Zhang Juzheng failed to stop it. The ministers saw the emperor's preference in their eyes, and the upward and downward effects became a peak period for building towers during the Wanli period.
Since most of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty believed in Taoism, the function of many pagodas has been transformed from pagodas to feng shui pagodas. The pagoda is a floating tu, and in the millennium, foreign culture has been combined with Chinese attic-style architecture to incarnate tens of thousands of pagodas in various forms. In the Ming Dynasty, pagodas have gradually adapted to Chinese culture, transcending religious significance and becoming practical and secular, becoming a symbol of people's prayers for cultural prosperity, prosperity and peace and security.
In the forty-fifth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1617), the dispute between friends in the court became more and more fierce, and Xiao Yunju, who was involved in the Xinhai Jingcha turmoil, returned to Nanning on the grounds of returning to his hometown and relatives. In the autumn of the second year after returning to his hometown, Xiao Yunju personally led his entourage to select a blessed place in Qingxiu Mountain, and hired workers to build a nine-story dragon elephant tower. Because of the great power of the water dragon and the great power of the land in the Buddhist scriptures, the pagoda was named "Dragon Elephant Tower".
In the name of the mighty dragon elephant, it can be seen that the prayer in Xiao Yunju's heart when he built the tower must be a great wish that can only be realized with the power of the dragon elephant.
In the third year of Ming Qi (1623), the power of the court fell into the hands of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian. In order to win people's hearts, some former ministers were called to the capital for reappointment, and Xiao Yunju was one of them. However, Xiao Yunju was unwilling to join the traitorous eunuchs, and resigned again the following year and returned to his hometown. Legend has it that not long after returning to Nanning, Xiao Yunju, who was in a depressed mood, went to Qingxiu Mountain to play, but was told that the Dragon Elephant Tower was struck by lightning one night in the summer and had collapsed two floors.
Xiao Yunju was shocked when he heard this, and this bad omen hit him deeply. The grief-stricken Xiao Yunju fell and injured himself while hiking down the mountain, and later died at home.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the famous traveler Xu Xiake wrote a record of passing through Qingxiu Mountain when he arrived in Nanning by boat. Twenty miles, there are earth mountains out of the north bank, is Qingxiu Mountain, there are five levels of floating tu, out of the green pine, is the southeast of Nanning" - Xu Xiake "Journey to the West of Guangdong") In fact, there are seven floors left, probably because of the shade of trees, so that Xu Xiake can only see five layers. In Xu Xiake's distant sight, the figure of the Dragon Elephant Tower was like the afterglow of the Ming Dynasty at this time, broken and desolate.
After the rise and fall of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the years passed in a flash, and the "Yongning at a Glance" published in 1935 recorded the new dynamics of the Dragon Elephant Tower. The Dragon Elephant Pagoda was renamed Sun Yat-sen Memorial Tower in 1928, but people usually call it just Castle Peak Pagoda. Soon, Castle Peak Pagoda ushered in its greatest calamity.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and the Japanese army launched a large-scale attack on the mainland from the sea, land and air. On January 8, 1938, the Japanese army attacked Nanning, and enemy planes circled near Qingxiu Mountain. This sad and indignant scene may be the last history witnessed by the Ancient Dragon Elephant Pagoda. From 1938 to 1939, the Japanese army bombed Nanning with continuous air raids, and a large number of bombs turned the city into ruins, killing and injuring countless people. At that time, Chen Shoumin, the magistrate of Yongning County of the Kuomintang Xingui Department, believed that the Longxiang Pagoda towering on the top of Qingshan Peak had become a navigation target for enemy planes to bomb Nanning, so he ordered the Longxiang Pagoda to be demolished, leaving only part of the tower base. The ancient dragon elephant pagoda that stood for hundreds of years disappeared from people's eyes.
It is another few decades of vicissitudes of life, and the bitterness is sweet. On December 4, 1984, the citizens of Nanning were unexpectedly surprised to see a news item from the front page of the newspaper: the Nanning Municipal People's Government decided to rebuild the Qingshan Pagoda from the perspective of protecting cultural relics and historical sites and developing tourism.
When the news spread, people enthusiastically donated, and the first batch of sponsorships amounted to more than 70,000 yuan. The design of the new dragon elephant tower refers to the shape of the Guiping East Tower, the shape is octagonal, the tower is 52.35 meters high, 12 meters wide, the tower body is a nine-layer brick and concrete structure, there are 207 spiral ladders to reach the top of the tower, the outer eaves are laid with green glazed tiles, 8 copper bells are hung under the eaves corner of each layer, on June 23, 1986, the reconstruction of the Qingshan Tower project officially started.
On October 1, 1987, the Nanning Municipal Government announced that the Qingxiu Mountain Scenic Area was officially opened to the outside world, restoring "Qingshan" to the original name of "Qingxiu Mountain", and "Qingshan Tower" was also renamed "Dragon Elephant Tower".
According to the Nanning Evening News, tens of thousands of visitors lined up to visit the reborn Dragon Elephant Pagoda.
Since that day, Qingxiu Mountain and Longxiang Pagoda have re-become one of the most beautiful city cards of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, and with the opening and development of Guangxi's tourism, they have welcomed visitors from all over the world with each passing day. In 2013, the Nanning Institute of Ethnic Culture and Art adapted the origin and legend of the Dragon Elephant Pagoda into a costume Cantonese opera "The Legend of the Dragon Elephant Tower" performed in Singapore, which was widely acclaimed and became a highlight of the cultural exchange activities between China and ASEAN.
The pagoda should be unharmed, and the world should be shocked. The Dragon Elephant Tower silently looks at the changes of hundreds of years, today's Yongjiang River, under the continuous green mountains, the mountains and rivers are still the same, the homeland has changed dramatically, and the world under the mountain is an unprecedented prosperity and tranquility.
Today at 21: 50
Broadcast on Guangxi Satellite TV
"Guangxi Story: The Green Mountains Are Ageless, the Dragon Elephant is the Tower"